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Tuesday, October 13th, 2020 2:45 PM

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Sensor status trigger for 3rd Party IOT devices

This is something I could probably figure out how to do if I tore apart a door/window sensor, but I would love to see SS sell a Normally Open / Normally Closed input and output device.  Basically, this would enable the more advanced users to purchase specialty sensors or other components and then have SS trigger when these are tripped.  For example, I have a workshop which does not get wireless signal back to the base unit.  I have low voltage cable running from the workshop to the house.  It would be fairly easy for me to wire up the doors, cabinets, etc with sensors and cable these back to the house and run them to a wireless sensor that has one NO/NC contact point.  This would also allow people who have previously wired systems re-use those sensors and wires.   Such a sensor would actually be cheaper than any other sensor you make, because it is the wireless transmitter minus the sensor (magnetic door contact, PIR, etc).  In a perfect world, you might even make a multi sensor which has 8 contact input points and 8 different wireless codes.

Likewise, a wireless output device could be tied to a power supply and an advanced user configurable device, like a strobe or other output device.  Again, this would be very easy for you since all you would have to do is take an existing siren and remove the siren part, just leaving the wireless receiver.

This conversation has been merged. Please refer the main conversation:

Matter Smart Home Integration

2.2K Messages

4 years ago

Since they have never offered one despite how trivial it would be to do, the odds are that they won't.  And if they did make one, it would be better if it had selectable response rather than just an "intrusion" response, but I guess that would be a lot more complex to implement.

244 Messages

4 years ago

Two possible solutions, neither of which is offered or sanctioned by Simplisafe:

1. It's easy to open up a door sensor and modify it to be a NC input.  It can even be done non-destructively if you simply wrap the wires around the legs of the reed switch.

2. The antennas in the sensors are too small for optimum range at the operating frequency.  The range can be improved significantly by making them a proper quarter-wave dipole.  That takes a bit more know-how and handiness.


Simplisafe is highly unlikely to ever offer external input or output devices for reasons of liability, support issues, and profits.

3 Messages

4 years ago

I would absolutely love a "generic' sensor like this. My backup sump pump has a NO/NC output to alert that it had to run.

I had a 3g cellular alarm connected to it. The company replaced their Verizon  3g with 4g LTE.  Verizon LTE totally sucks at our location, barley get a usable signal outdoors, above ground.  Tried the various WiFi options sump pump manufacturers offer, but either they don't seem to like dual-band mesh access points and disconnect routinely, or it literally takes hours to receive an alert from their servers, if one comes at all.

So, being able to use my SimpliSafe system, with its reliable WiFi and cellular connections, to alert us of a sump pump issue would be a huge benefit of our system...

2 Messages

3 years ago

I am starting to think I should have read more about SS. Some of the most basic devices are lacking big time. A strobe for my deaf wife, NO/NC contact sensors, sensors that aren't intrusion, ability to announce which door is opened and closed, temp sensors for fridge/freezer, power monitors (base only tells me one leg of my power), smart outlet or API into my smart lighting so that all lights come on bright white with intrusion, heck tie into an RGB lighting system and store red/blue.

I listened to the hype on YouTube with all the sponsorship. Learned my lesson. Heck don't even listen to commercials, why did I this time?

244 Messages

3 years ago

Caveat Emptor.


Simplisafe is primarily an alarm system, not a home monitoring and automation system.  There are systems that will do more, but they cost more, both initially and monthly.

2.2K Messages

3 years ago

SS3 temperature sensors have both a low alarm and high alarm set point between 0 and 100, so should work nicely for a fridge alarm.  They fail miserably as a freezer alarm, as mine, at least, dip below 0 every now and again, leading to annoying false alarms.

3 Messages

3 years ago

It would be very useful to us home automation folks if we could trigger actions based on events detected by SimpliSafe sensors. For example I could turn on the garage lights when the garage door is opened. SimplySafe has some basic home integration for Amazon and Google products but nothing that directly reports events. Having the base station connect to an MQTT broker (configured in settings) and sending event messages would allow any automation tool to subscribe and react to events. It would not degrade the security aspect of SimpliSafe products and would save me from having to buy and mount a second open close sensor on things I want to integrate with my home automation.

At a minimum the MQ message would need to include version, date, time, sensor ID, event and current system state.

IMHO an MQTT event reporting feature would be a great thing to add to the SimpliSafe feature list.

PS: I have no idea if anyone else has asked for this because I can't search the forum.
Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled Suggestion: MQTT Event Reporting

Captain

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6K Messages

@grybd1 various types of integration have been asked for years.  If you want to search the state of art 1997 forums, use a google site search; quick and easy.

site: simplisafe.com/forum  {insert key words}

Community Admin

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5.6K Messages

grybd1,

Thanks for the suggestion! We've had requests for IFTTT and Zwave, Siri Shortcut etc. or similar integration in the past, but this is the first I've heard of MQTT. I'll pass it on to our devs!

- Johnny M.
SimpliSafe Home Security
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